Milton Friedman Manuscript on J.M. Keynes’ The General Theory.

FRIEDMAN, Milton.

$20,000.00

Item Number: 88180

One page signed and hand-corrected manuscript entirely in the hand of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman discussing Keynes’ The General Theory. Inscribed in the top right corner, “For Mark Gruber, Milton Friedman”, the manuscript reads, “Inflation, not unemployment, continued to be the major economic problem after the war, as it was during the war. Keynes’…flexibility would have led him to turn his attention increasingly to the themes of Monetary Reform which were far more relevant to the post-war decades than those of The General Theory and remain so today…Though Keynes was a great thinker, his interest in theory was not for its own sake but ‘as a base’ for designing policy.” Several lines crossed out and corrected in Friedman’s hand. Double matted and framed with a photographic portrait of Friedman. The letter measures 7 inches by 11 inches. The entire piece measures 17.5 inches by 20.5 inches. An important piece linking two of the greatest rivaling economists of the twentieth century, with the former’s critique of the latter’s magnum opus.

Two of the greatest economists of the twentieth century, Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes created macroeconomic theories that continue to directly impact fiscal and monetary policies. Ranking with Malthus’ Essay on Population as a guide for public policy, Keynes' General Theory expounded on the necessity of of government expenditures and net exports in economic improvement. Developed as a direct criticism of Keynesian economics, Friedman's monetarist economics stressed the importance of monetary policy in the maintenance of a healthy economy. Friedman received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.